How The Complex Became a Multi-City Live Music and Entertainment Destination

Photo: MigPxl Media

Playing host to mega headliners like Post Malone, Queens of the Stone Age, and Lil Wayne, The Complex brings nationally and internationally touring musicians and mind-blowing experiences to their attendees. The Complex features concerts, art galas, MMA fights, private parties, and more at each of their locations in Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, Springfield, and Memphis.

Producing live events since 2010, each of The Complex venues is owned and operated by The Complex Live, the event promotion company responsible for booking some of today’s biggest performers. The Complex originated in Salt Lake City as a destination venue, and is composed of a quartet of separate performance rooms of varying size and design. This unique layout meant The Complex was capable of hosting just about any event, whether it be a massively popular touring musician, an up-and-coming local band, or even a wedding reception. Due to the roaring success of their Salt Lake City location, The Complex saw an opportunity to expand to Albuquerque, then Memphis and Springfield shortly thereafter.

Today, The Complex continues to welcome some of the world's top touring artists at each venue. “Live music is one of the greatest experiences out there,” said Steve Loso, Marketing Director at The Complex. “A fan creating an everlasting memory with their favorite artist is everything to us, and it’s the reason we do what we do. Our goal is to provide an environment where this can happen.”

Searching for a Solution to Strike the Right Chords

As The Complex’s schedule began filling up with more exciting and diverse events, it became clear they needed to find an event ticketing partner that could handle that growth while selling as many tickets as possible for each event. They needed a ticketing provider that could deliver access to integrated promotional and communication tools, high-level ticketing features, and devoted marketing support. In 2014, they began their hunt for a solution that offered not only a simple purchase flow, but also advanced backend tools and marketing know-how. That being said, they found that many potential ticketing partners would fall short in these aspects.

Lacking Marketing Support

As they looked to expand into new cities, The Complex wanted a partner who could also offer insight and guidance on optimizing their event marketing strategy and help them sell more tickets. What they found, however, is that all event ticketing partners are not created equally. “A lot of ticketing platforms are just one-and-done. They don’t do a lot to personalize the ticketing experience, and they don’t take the time to offer marketing assistance specific to your venue,” Loso said. “We wanted an invested, focused event partner to help us grow our attendance and our following.”

Photo: Miguel Mendoza

Time Consuming Presales

As a live music venue with a widely diverse concert schedule, simple-to-manage ticket presales were a must for The Complex. “We knew from past experience that devoted fans of live music love being able to secure their tickets early by way of a presale,” Loso explained. “What we needed was an easy way to make that happen.” When working with past ticketing providers, The Complex team found that the process of uploading and managing large quantities of coupons and presale codes was unnecessarily time consuming. They were in search of a solution that would streamline this process, making the purchase flow easy for their customers, and saving time for their own team.

“Since we first started working with ShowClix, the response from our fanbase said it all. Our customers really enjoy the features they provide that simplify the ticket purchasing process, and that sort of reaction is very valuable in this business.”

- Steve Loso, Marketing Director, The Complex

Data and Communication Disconnect

If The Complex wanted to make the most of their time, simplifying and optimizing ongoing audience engagement and data analysis was a must. “We didn’t have all that much insight into data, like where people were finding out about our shows or how they were making their way to our website to purchase tickets,” Loso said. “On top of that, tasks like alerting fans to updates could prove tough without easy access to their most up-to-date contact info. We wanted a platform that could offer simple solutions to address a range of data and communication needs, and we just weren’t finding that anywhere else.”

A Full-Service Event Technology Partner Takes the Stage

The Complex’s search for the ideal ticketing partner came to an end when they found ShowClix. “Since we first started working with ShowClix, the response from our fanbase said it all,” Loso said. “Our customers really enjoy the features they provide that simplify the ticket purchasing process, and that sort of reaction is very valuable in this business.”

“Being able to create presale codes specific to our Complex Crew Pass members has been a great way to reward our loyal customers, and the ShowClix system makes it so easy to manage these and other codes across all of our shows. ”

- Steve Loso, Marketing Director, The Complex

Experienced Marketers

ShowClix provides a team of event marketing experts to help their partners increase event awareness and sell more tickets. By consulting with the ShowClix Marketing Services team, The Complex was provided a personal Marketing Services expert to help set up and optimize their Facebook and Instagram advertising campaigns, and make sure all their third-party marketing accounts were properly connected to collect all relevant data. They were also given insight and suggestions on improving their current and future marketing campaigns with a set of fully customized recommendations tailored specifically to their venues. “The first few campaigns we did definitely saw a notable decrease in the cost per ticket sale, so we saw a difference right away after taking their advice,” Loso said. “The help and training our Marketing Services expert offered was incredibly beneficial.”

Advanced Presale Capabilities

The ShowClix system makes it easy to upload, enable, and adjust the vast amount of presale codes The Complex uses to help promote their events. The simple integration of these codes into the purchase flow makes it easy for customers to apply them to their ticket orders as well. With such simplicity, The Complex was able to improve their Complex Crew Pass, a loyalty program that rewards repeat attendees with special perks and prizes. They began using individualized codes to provide Crew Pass members access to exclusive show presales. “Being able to create presale codes specific to our Complex Crew Pass members has been a great way to reward our loyal customers, and the ShowClix system makes it so easy to manage these and other codes across all of our shows,” Loso said.

Unified Communication and Data Tools

The ShowClix Marketing Dashboard houses a wealth of tools that make The Complex’s day-to-day data analytics and event communication tasks much easier to manage. The Dashboard’s integrated tracking tags monitor campaign performance and traffic sources so they can better optimize any campaign, while the built-in email campaigns tool can send promotional and informational emails directly to ticket buyers, including updates on show-day procedures and merchandise promos. “Having so many of our communication and engagement tasks housed in one convenient spot has proven invaluable in monitoring and managing these important activities,” Loso said.

“It was a no-brainer to continue the partnership we formed with ShowClix in Salt Lake City as we expanded to Albuquerque and Springfield. There was no doubt they’d be the right choice regardless of location."

- Steve Loso, Marketing Director, The Complex

Photo: MigPxl Media

ShowClix Delivers Results

3

New locations opened since partnering with ShowClix

25+

Hours of dedicated marketing support

> 50%

Avg YoY increase in ticket sales for Salt Lake City

1,500

Avg number of presale codes managed per year

Photo: Miguel Mendoza

ShowClix is the Trusted Event Technology Partner

As The Complex continues to share their passion for music and entertainment with the world, they will continue to look to ShowClix to help them grow their business. To do this, ShowClix will continue to offer expert marketing solutions, provide a smooth presale process, and help them sell more tickets to their events by offering new system features. “The music industry is constantly evolving,” said Loso. “With ShowClix, we can trust we’ll always be a step ahead. They’re a great resource to have in your back pocket.”

In fact, it was thanks in part to the great success they had with ShowClix that The Complex could swiftly expand into multiple new cities. “It was a no-brainer to continue the partnership we formed with ShowClix in Salt Lake City as we expanded to Albuquerque and Springfield,” Loso said. “There was no doubt they’d be the right choice regardless of location.”

“ShowClix is great to work with and has always been there if we needed anything. As we look to the future, we can trust they’ll continue to grow with us. You just can’t find that type of support anywhere else.”